My first video blog is quite Evil!

I had so many ideas on what to make my first video blog about, everything from how-to videos to funny skits, but I decided to go see a movie I have been excited about and record a review about it. This assignment also gave me the opportunity to use my new camera that I had to purchase for photography class which I am currently doing terrible in.

My topic on my video blog is about the movie, "Evil Dead (2013)". This video runs about 8 minutes, but I had a really good time recording it and I left in some funny edits. So ladies and gentlemen, I give you.... me:

Facebook is massively important and annoying.

I am a member of the social network generation. I had a live journal, myspace, and currently a facebook. I could remember spending my late teens and early twenties completely absorbed with the idea of my own personal website where my opinions, problems, announcements, and life events could not only be expressed but organized and shared with practically anybody. Then again I have never shy'd away from attention.

Facebook still astounds me, especially since the older I get I tend to meet new people, share new experiences, and practically document it all with various mediums. The entire reason I live in Eugene OR, is because of facebook. I met people, networked and learned information on the city. I was able to talk to students of LCC in advance about the school, cost of living, night life and so on. This medium of communication is so helpful I couldn't imagine life without it. Facebook is by far the best self promotion tool freely available, but with this amount of freedom comes the annoyances of everybody elses opinion. 

In recent years I have witnessed a hike in this "digital activism" which drives me practically insane. The same people I used to enjoy reading updates on now just spam pictures and propaganda on things from religion, politics, to even personal obsessions. It's a shame to release that amount of information widely, now everybody in the world knows how to exactly piss you off and that's some ammunition I would like to keep to myself (no pun intended).

Generally I'm a happy person who loves to live a free and outgoing life. It's very obvious on my profile my interests and activities show my nature and demeanor.  Very rarely will you see my insecurities or personal opinions on serious matters, however if you want to know what those are, then have some coffee with me. ;)

wiki tiki tumble

I really wanted to add to the class wiki, but it seems (as for a lot of my classmates as well) that the class wiki website was taking too long to accept my registration. However, I have used quite a few wiki's in my time ranging from Wikipedia to specific wikis for video games. The concept is truly brilliant, the first time I used Wikipedia I remember laughing about how I began my search for information on Hawaii, and ended up looking at a list of American gladiators. In nearly every argument I am involved in, Wikipedia is always the knowledge referee, and will have the final say even if suspiciously edited.

This exchange and community of knowledge really does show how evolved the Internet has become, it's also a grand analogy of the Internet itself. A vast collection information contributed but millions of people, yet somehow I use it to memorize the first series of American gladiators.

*Once accepted to the wikispace I will update as needed for this assignment and future assignments that require the class wiki.

Social Media is more powerful than we think, also it's pretty rad

My name is Brian and I'm very spontaneous  When I thought of naming this blog I literally hit "random article" on wikipedia twice and viola, my blog has it's name. I found it very appropriate that I would use wikipedia to label this blog, a blog that exist to discuss my personal views on social media and Web 2.0 technologies. I find it astounding the amount of information we have available through the internet, and not just for study, but the personal diaries and general database of humanity. I am old enough to know how far along social media has evolved and I personally accept and promote it. However, I am known to be an extrovert and have been  found guilty on multiple occasions of loving attention, so yes I am bias.

We are so much more powerful now thanks to the advancements in social media and "web 2.0. Sound weird? Well, let me explain: Imagine you were a big stupid jerk, and you really wanted to offend two hundred people in a single day. Let's also add that you are not famous in any way, nor have access to television feeds. How impossible would this task be in 1995? Now, how easy is this to do tomorrow? I personally have over 700 friends on my Facebook, and if I really wanted to offend 200 of them, I could do it in under a minute. We have gained an ability to be looked at, I prefer to use it to promote my projects and crafts instead of pissing off hundreds of people, but sometimes that happens if I drank enough scotch.

Consider the following: If we had to describe to a person living in 1950 our advancements in technology today, it would sound like this: "I possess in my pocket a device that links me to a network of endless and ever-engrossing information, I have the ability to learn anything I please and share with the world my ideas and creations. And yet, I use it to look up funny pictures of cats and have pointless arguments with people I will never meet."